Microsoft Office Coming To iPad And Android In November

If you’ve been waiting for Microsoft to release a version of their Office software for the iPad, well, you’re going to be waiting a little longer. According to BGR‘s source Microsoft is planning to release a version of Office in November for the iPad (and Android tablets as well). This was attributed to “a reliable source,” so take the rumor with a grain of salt.

The UI is still rumored to contain elements of Microsoft's Metro theme

The iPad version of Microsoft Office that BGR’s source saw was reportedly identical to the version that was leaked in February, although a Microsoft spokesperson outright denied that the product exists. The app was supposedly near release, so why is the app now set for release in November? As long as we’re asking questions, why release an iPad version of Office now?

The iPad’s been out since 2010, and has yet to receive an official version of Office from Microsoft. (Although Microsoft did make a version of OneNote.) There are alternatives to Microsoft Office: Apple offers Pages, Numbers, and Keynote as alternatives to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (although these iWork apps are separate purchases which cost $9.99 each); there’s also Evernote, which can handle basic document formatting and is available for free; you can get Documents To Go if you really miss your Palm Treo.

But those alternatives only offer basic compatibility for office documents. Excel spreadsheets that make use of certain functions won’t run on anything but the desktop version of Microsoft Excel (HeroForge, as a geeky example). If you can’t accept a substitute you can access the PC version of Microsoft office through Onlive Desktop now.

Do we really need an iPad port of Microsoft word when we can do this?

Is there even a place for another office suite on the iPad? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.